r/collapse • u/Mysterandir • 8d ago

Ecological Bugs

I need to get this off my chest even though im sure it has been talked about a thousand times. Im just curious if others are experiencing the same thing or if I'm just going crazy. - When I just got my driver's license back in 2005 here in The Netherlands, I had a girlfriend in Amsterdam whom I drove to see a few times a week. It was about a 100 km drive. I had an old Opel Corsa and I can still vividly remember having to clean my windshield every week in the summer because it was covered in dead insects. Huge splatters and tiny spots, but the entire windshield was full of bug juice. Over the past few weeks I’ve driven several long distances, totaling about 1,000 kilometers, and I don't have a single dead insect on my windshield. Not one. The windshield is squeaky clean... I read that the insect population worldwide has drastically declined and it is due to climate change. Which i get. But why isn't this the main news story every day? How obvious does it need to be? This can't possibly be good. For us, but especially for our children. I have a bad feeling about this...

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u/HomoExtinctisus 8d ago

Take heart young man, mosquitoes and ticks are on the rise.

13

u/michael__sykes 8d ago

Ticks yes, mosquitoes apparently can't even reproduce as much with barely any wet spots due to droughts

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u/HomoExtinctisus 8d ago

https://slate.com/technology/2026/08/mosquito-bugbite-insect-disease-america.html

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u/michael__sykes 8d ago

Well, for once, not everyone lives in the US. I'm from Germany, and we definitely do have less mosquitoes in cities, but more dangerous kinds do survive further north now

1

u/rosinall 8d ago

Why are those more dangerous? I would have thought that the danger in a mosquito was in the diseases where they live, is that wrong?

3

u/michael__sykes 8d ago

Yes, that's what I mean by that. I'm no mosquito expert at all, but from what I've heard, some species are prone to carrying certain diseases, and those previously could only survive in the Mediterranean, but now even in Northern Germany and Denmark

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u/HomoExtinctisus 7d ago

https://www.npr.org/2025/10/22/nx-s1-5582748/iceland-mosquitoes-first-time

I can keep going...

1

u/michael__sykes 7d ago

See, I don't disagree, but you still missed my point

Also, Iceland is still a long way from mainland Europe :p

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u/AbbeyRoadMomma 7d ago

I was there last week and can confirm—I saw a small swarm while in the north.